


until the weight falls from your back (I’ll keep you in my arms tonight)

by dancer4813



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Tal'dorei Campaign, from episode 82, i swear a pillow exploded in here somewhere, i've never written so much fluff in my life i'm drowning, lots of fluff, sfw, that one scene, you know the one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 07:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9538316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancer4813/pseuds/dancer4813
Summary: “Darling?”“Hmmm?” Percy hummed in question, slowing as they approached the door to Vex’s room.“Mind if I join you for a bath?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> I know everybody thinks Perc'ahlia had sex here, but honestly I think both of them were too tired for that. So my brain supplied fluff and love instead.

Vex trailed after Percy as Vox Machina went their separate ways, her feet moving on autopilot. Her brother had been the first to rush off to the baths and no one had questioned her leaving after Percy – all their rooms were in the same wing of the castle after all.

Still, she found herself following his footsteps, just behind him until she found a surge of courage and sped up to walk alongside him, slipping her fingers between his as she does so.

He jumped slightly but didn’t let go of her hand, gently running his thumb across her knuckles as he slowed his walk to match hers.

“Hello, dear,” he said, his breath warm on her head as he dropped a kiss on top of her hair. “I’m sorry you startled me – I didn’t notice you were there. You’re getting better at sneaking every day.”

“Am I?” Vex asked, squeezing his fingers gently and pressing closer to him in the chill air of Whitestone.

As they walked she felt her eyes glaze over as they continue the familiar path down the hall, up the stairs, turning right then going straight, then left…

They walked for a bit longer, and when they arrived at the hall housing their rooms Vex spoke again.

“Darling?”

“Hmmm?” Percy hummed in question, slowing as they approached the door to Vex’s room.

“Mind if I join you for a bath?”

Percy stopped in front of her door, and she looked up at him to see a curious expression in his eyes.

“You know I don’t mind in the slightest,” he said, bringing his free hand to the side of her face.

She closed her eyes at the contact, the warmth of his palm chasing away the chill in her cheeks.

“But why do you ask?”

Vex sighed, lifting her own free hand to cover his, keeping his warm presence against her face, but she didn’t articulate further.

“I only ask because… Well, we’re exhausted,” Percy said, and Vex opened her eyes to see his shining blue eyes behind golden spectacles, just behind matted clumps of white hair greyed from ash and soot. “I’m not sure now is the best time…”

There’s a sharpness to his gaze, a searching depth, and a sudden trembling in his hands that makes Vex’s breath catch in her throat, a heat rising to her cheeks as she blinked furiously. She knows what he’s not saying, and she doesn’t want to dwell on such things. She would _love_ to dwell on such enjoyable activities in the future, possibly even for long hours, but she was, to put it simply, exhausted.

“It-“

She got out one word before the lump in her throat stopped her speech and she had to take a deep breath to continue, pulling his hand from her face as she did so.

“I’m not sure I want to be alone right now,” she said slowly, haltingly, doing her best not to let herself go. “I mean-“

He squeezed her fingers, preempting her babbling.

“I understand.”

And of course she should have known he understood, him of all people.

Biting her lip, Vex nodded and squeezed his fingers in return.

“So shall we get some clean clothes for the both of us?” Percy asked, gesturing down the hall.

Vex nodded again, her throat tight, and followed Percy’s hand pulling at her own.

They entered Vex’s room first, and Vex released Percy’s hand for a moment to rummage through her drawers to find something comfortable, taking it again as they left her room and went to Percy’s.

He easily pulled out a loose shirt and everything else he needed with one hand, the other firmly locked with hers.

“Come on, the royal bath is this way,” he said with a wink that had a smile pulling at her lips. He led her up a floor to a different hallway, one she had wandered down perhaps once or twice previously, though never with any intention.

“When you say ‘royal bath’…” Vex trailed off as they reached the end of the corridor and he opened the door for her. “Oh.”

The bathroom they walked into was bigger than any she’d ever set foot in, save the hot spring pools that Scanlan had in his “magnificent mansion”. The air was filled with a lovely mix of aromas, from tart to mellow, almost like a strong tea, and there was a lingering sense of warmth, similar to the hot springs and the steam they emitted.

“Bless the servants for putting in the herbs,” Percy said, taking a deep inhale, a peaceful smile slipping over his features.

Vex felt a small weight lift off her chest at the sight and took a deep breath of her own, letting the scent of the herbs fill her nose and lungs. The warmth of the room was a welcome change from the cool air of hall, and Vex felt a sudden surge of emotion sting at her eyes even as Percy led her to the edge of the tub.

“Have you always had your baths here?” Vex asked as they laid their clean clothes on a wooden bench, next to some thick towels.

“No,” Percy said with a grin, “Though this _would_ technically be the bath for the Lord and Lady of Whitestone, it’s not exactly an easy task to fill it.”

“But it’s filled now.”

“With all of us here, Cassandra must have told the servants to fill all available baths – are you complaining?”

His tone was teasing, but Vex felt a couple tears run down her face and she tried to inconspicuously wipe the moisture from her cheeks instead of answering.

After a moment, Percy pulled her close and finished the job himself, then pulled her in for a gentle kiss, sweet and tender enough that it almost had her crying again.

As they broke apart she managed a smile and pulled away, thankful that he hadn’t said anything. She untangled the leather tie from the end of her braided hair and starting to unravel the mess before disrobing. The sooner they could get clean the better.

It didn’t take long for them to settle themselves in the bath, the heat of the water soaking into their aching muscles and scent of the herbs creating an earthy, yet simultaneously heady atmosphere. Vex sighed, letting herself sink until only her face was above the water, then pushing herself back up and reclining against the sanded white stone on the sides of the bath.

“You could nearly swim laps in here,” Vex murmured, stretching out her legs into the depressed center of the bath.

Percy chuckled, running wet fingers through his hair to make it stand up before he flattened it out again, the white strands turning grey with ash and dirt.

“My father had it made for my mother as a gift for their anniversary when I was younger – she grew up in a warmer climate than here, and while we took the occasional trip to a beach or lake before the twins were born, it was nice for them to have a place to relax together.”

“Sounds romantic,” Vex said, swallowing back a joke about what might _actually_ have gone in the tub. She was all for jokes and sex most of the time, but the warm water was making her already groggy mind even foggier. So she closed her eyes instead and leaned against Percy’s shoulder, breathing deeply, the scent of gunpowder and ash mixing with the herbs infused in the water forming an intoxicating mix.

Percy hummed, his chest vibrating beneath her cheek, and he brought up his hand to rub her arm.

“I actually helped with some of the mechanics,” Percy continued, his thumb working out a knot in her shoulder. “We wanted to come up with an easier way of moving so much water up two flights of stairs, not to mention keeping it warm, so I came up with the idea for a reservoir that could be heated with fires. From there a set of pressure systems have switches that can be thrown to direct the water into different parts of the castle.”

“I love when you talk smart,” Vex murmured, and he chuckled, dropping a kiss on top of her head.

“Glad to hear it, as I do it often enough,” he replied, his arm tightening in a hug for a moment. “Though, should we wash up so you don’t fall asleep in the bath? And we should still eat something before going to bed.”

Vex grumbled, not even attempting to form actual words, but she pushed herself up. She did, however, take a moment to admire, not for the first time, the wiry and defined muscles on Percy’s physique. Given other circumstances she would have wanted to take advantage of their current situation and privacy, but her stomach growled and her limbs ached and yes, they probably should just hurry and wash up before someone else came knocking, ready to clean themselves up.

Percy handed her a bar of sweet-smelling soap and Vex gratefully started to scrub the black-brown stains of ash and blood from her body as he did the same. It went relatively quickly, and soon the water was dark with grime, with a thin layer of suds floating on top.

But when it came time to wash her back, when she tried to twist awkwardly to reach, Percy caught her hand in his and smiled at her confusion.

“Do you want me to get your back for you?”

Vex raised an eyebrow, but nodded (it would certainly be easier, and less taxing on her already spent muscles), and relinquished her soap and turned to face away from him.

When his calloused fingers dug beneath her shoulder blades, into literal knots of muscle, Vex gasped and braced an arm against the side of the bath, exhaling heavily.

Percy’s fingers relaxed and she felt him shift to her side, then saw his face in her periphery.

“Was that too much?”

“It was gorgeous, darling,” Vex assured him, dropping her head onto the side of the table, breathing out heavily once more. “Just unexpected. I certainly wouldn’t mind if you continued…”

She trailed off as he began again, and the pressure was welcome when she knew it was on its way. Humming, Vex took deep breaths as he worked, methodical as he always was, starting beneath her shoulders and working up to her neck and head, the soap making his fingers slide easily across her skin.

Vex felt herself relaxing more than she had in weeks, and hummed again as he brushed her hair to one side and kept moving up her spine. She let herself drift for a moment, but she snapped back to reality when she heard the distinctive sound of footfalls coming down the hall.

“Percy, I think we’re about to have a visitor,” she said, turning to look at the door.

“A visitor?”

“Your hearing might be shit from all those explosions, but trust me, darling,” she said, listening carefully to try and determine who it was.

After a moment the familiar tread was impossible to mistake, and Vex’s eyes widened, especially when the footsteps didn’t slow, even approaching the door.

He wasn’t going to knock. Nope.

“Fuck,” Vex said, before taking a deep breath in and ducking under the water.

It had been a long time since Vex had needed to hold her breath for anything, and when Vax stepped _into the bath_ and then didn’t say anything for a good ten seconds she started to worry that they would all end up in a _very_ awkward situation regardless of the potential topic of discussion.

Thankfully, Percy initiated conversation, and though the words were muddled by the water as Vex practically clung to his leg to keep from floating to the surface, she caught something about her brother being weird. Then Vax said something about them being different, though she wasn’t sure _who_ was different from whom.  

“I would agree, although, again, I’m in a _bath_ at the moment.”

Vex was careful not to chuckle at the emphasis Percy put in his crisp words, and she pinched her nose in case she was tempted to breathe in.

The air above her was eerily silent, and Vex wanted to sigh at her brother’s roundabout ways of talking to people.

“Cut to it,” Percy said after a moment, Vex making a brief mental note to do something particularly nice for her boyfriend when all was said and done with the Conclave. “I was really working on something,” he continued, and Vex hugged his calf tighter, her cheek resting against his kneecap.

Her brother started talking, his voice too low to carry to her ears no matter how hard she tried. Vex felt the first sign of tightness in her chest as her lungs started to run out of oxygen and she tapped Percy’s leg, hoping he would get the message to hurry things up.

He didn’t say anything, though, besides making some noise of assent in Vax’s direction.

“Now I have a sister, and we fight constantly, so I expect to do that with you,” Vax said, just a bit louder. Vex wasn’t sure where their conversation went from there, however, as her lungs began screaming just a bit louder than the voices above her and it took all she had to stay underwater. She also had a terrible urge to cough, the ash from Thordak’s lair certainly stuck in her throat still.

Vex caught something about family from Percy, and she tapped his leg again, more urgently, and hoped her would hurry Vax the fuck out of there. A couple bubbles escaped her lips and she used the hand that was pinching her nose to cover her mouth as well.

What felt like ages later she finally heard a splash as Vax left the tub and then the muffled sound of a door closing, which she took as her cue.

“Oh, thank god!” she exclaimed, taking a deep breath, then another. “I thought he’d never leave!”

She coughed, then looked up at Percy, who had a thoughtful smile on his face, and she smacked his leg underwater.

“Could you not understand my frantic tapping on your leg?”

“There really wasn’t much I could do to hurry the talk along,” Percy said, still grinning. “I am sorry about that. But your brother took over thirty seconds to get to even a decent point for conversation, after sitting down, let alone what he was actually here to talk about.”

“Which was what?” Vex asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

“He called me his brother,” Percy said, looking over toward the door. “And said that he was glad to have me here.”

“He called you ‘brother’ to your face?” Vex asked, starting to rethink her earlier assumptions about Vax’s state of mind.

“He did.”

“That’s an accomplishment.”

“Is it?” Percy asked, turning back to look at her.

“How many times has he said that to you in living memory?” Vex asked, twirling a bit of her hair around a finger as she bit her lip and contemplated the situation before her. “He never says things like that out loud. He must like you.”

She winked at him then, and he rolled his eyes, making her chuckle.

“Honestly though,” Vex said, turning so she could sit beside him again. “I’m surprised he said anything at all.”

Percy only hummed a bit, bringing up one hand to tangle it through her hair as they sat there, the water starting to cool perceptibly.

“We’ve been making amends for a while,” Percy said after a moment.

Vex, glancing up, saw his gaze was fixed again on the door to the hallway.

“I think that might have been the closest thing to an apology I’m going to get,” he continued, his fingers dropping to her shoulder and squeezing gently. “Or, perhaps, it was forgiveness.”

“It seems to be making its rounds,” Vex said, nodding and laying her head on Percy’s shoulder again. She felt several emotions well up in her chest, predominantly relief and peace, though other feelings were mixed into the basket. Vex felt tears well up in her eyes for about the twentieth time that day.

She sniffed a couple times, and Percy shifted to look down at her.

“Are you alright?”

Vex nodded, taking a deep breath and sitting up, her vision a little blurry, but she could still see Percy’s face, crumpled and frowning as it was.

“I think so,” she said truthfully. The cold tension that had been set in her chest since falling unconscious in Thordak’s lair had thawed a great deal in the warm water and next to Percy. Her muscles were still sore, but she didn’t feel like she might fall over if she tried to stand, and she no longer felt the need to simultaneously run from everyone and pull them into a group hug.

“It’s been a long day,” she said after a moment of thought. “And it’s going to be a long one after we sleep, I’m sure. But for now I’m hanging in there.”

“I think we all are,” Percy said, brushing some hair out of her face and behind one of her ears. “And that’s all we’re going to be able to do until everything’s calmed down.”

“Will it ever calm down?” Vex found herself asking, with a bit more desperation than she had intended. “I mean, we had a little time here after defeating the Briarwoods, but we’ve never had time to just sit and relax. Not since the Underdark, practically. We’ve always had _something_ to do.”

“We can only hope,” said Percy, a wry smile touching his lips. “Though we do seem to attract more trouble than we’re worth, don’t we?”

“It’s ridiculous,” Vex agreed, shaking her head.

“We’re ridiculous.”

Vex actually snorted, then began laughing out loud, Percy joining her after only a moment. It was hard to stop once she had started, the remaining tension of the past couple days fully dispersing in the presence of such amusement, and when they finally stopped it took her a moment to get her breath back.

“That we are,” she said with a cough, still smiling. Percy’s face mirrored her mood and she shook her head, leaning forward to press her lips to his. He returned the pressure with a gentle enthusiasm, and when they pulled away both of them were still smiling. Vex found herself staring into Percy’s eyes, the rainstorm hue of his irises sparkling in the light of the gas lamps set around the room, and he stared back for a long moment, until he leaned forward and kissed her forehead again.

“Would you like me to wash your hair for you?” he asked, pulling back.

Vex looked down at some of the hair trailing down her chest, part of it coated with ash despite being underwater and some of it matted.

“I can’t say I wouldn’t,” she said, smiling. “Though I would prefer if you were quick about it – it’s starting to get cold here.”

“Mmmm,” Percy hummed, dropping his hands to her shoulders and gently spinning her in place, then encouraging her to lean her head back and get her hair wet once again. “And hopefully the others managed to take their baths quicker than the two of us. We’ve taken quite the bath.”

“Fuck it,” she said as Percy pushed her head up again and she let him start scrubbing soap onto the ends of her hair. “We fought a dragon today.”

“We _all_ fought a dragon today,” Percy reminded her, his fingers moving up through her hair until they reached her scalp.

“Details, details,” Vex said, biting her lip at the sensation of strong fingers working their way through her hair.

“Important details.”

“Mmhmm,” Vex agreed, not really in the mood for a coherent response. Percy’s fingers danced their way across her scalp with stunning strength and pressure, almost as if they were tracing patterns in heavy sand.

It didn’t take him long to finish, thorough and efficient as he was, and all too soon he had a hand on either temple, guiding her head backwards to wash the suds from her hair. He ran his fingers through her hair again and again, rinsing out the soap and inspiring a warmth to fill Vex’s chest in the silence.

When he finished he let her know, and she sat up, running her fingers through her hair and squeezing out some of the excess water.

“Thank you,” she said, turning back to face him. She tried to put more meaning into the words than a simple thanks for washing her hair, and by his smile she hoped she had succeeded.

“Anytime,” he replied, his voice low, and she couldn’t help but smile.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“I count on it.”

Their lips met again in a soft kiss, chaste and quick, and Vex shivered slightly.

“I think it’s time to return to the rest,” Percy said, and Vex reluctantly agreed, slipping out of the bath after Percy and wrapping herself in a large towel.

After she’d dried off Vex slipped into her loose clothes and glanced at her leather armor, coated in filth and ash.

“We can have the servants take care of that,” Percy said, stepping up behind her. “I’ll let them know it’s here, and they can have it cleaned and polished before we wake.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s their job,” he pointed out, “And besides, we need time to both eat and sleep before our next battle. So let’s make the most of it, shall we?”

He held out his hand, and she took it.

“I think I can do that,” she said, smiling, as they headed toward the hall.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song "Oh My Dear" by Tenth Avenue North which, thanks to Perc'ahlia, I will never listen to the same way again. (I love my OTP...)
> 
> Also, I did a lot of research on medieval baths and that's where the whole herb thing came from. They basically made tea baths using herbs that were primarily medicinal, or known to relax you (ie. chamomile, bruisewort, heyriff, mallow, camphor, and others). So that's pretty cool. Also, I have no idea how the mechanics of pumping water through a building actually work, but I imagine Percy would have found it an interesting challenge in his younger years.
> 
> Let me know what you think, and if you want go and watch me scream on tumblr (@dancer4813 or @dancerwrites)


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